"Pared-Down" MySpace Still Carrying More Staff Than Twitter, Flickr or Tumblr

In 2005, News Corp. bought also-ran social networking site MySpace for $580 million.

In 2007, it was valued at an astronomical $12 billion.

Yesterday, when it was sold to California ad network Specific Media, MySpace went for $35 million, mainly in stock -- a staggering $545 million loss.

MySpace -- a place for friends...to discuss laser surgery

A memo was sent by CEO Mike Jones to the MySpace staff after the deal was completed that read:

In conjunction with the deal, we are conducting a series of restructuring initiatives, including a significant reduction in our workforce. I will assist Specific with the transition over the next two months before departing my role as Myspace CEO.

In a piece taking a look at the specifics of the transaction, the Wall Street Journal notes that the "significant reduction" translates into Myspace "shed[ding] more than half of its staff of about 500 people" which is significantly fewer than the 1,400 employees the company had "as recently as two years ago."

That means, between now, whenever the layoffs are completed, and post-downsizing, MySpace still has -- and will continue to have -- a workforce equal to or bigger than many better-known, more heavily-trafficked companies, like Mozilla, the outfit behind Firefox, one of the few true Safari and IE killers, and Last.fm, the company that MySpace would have liked to become.